stories told at knife point
by Aiko Isari
Summary: reincarnation!AU xover with Frontier. What no one tells Rina is that remembering anything about being Orimoto Izumi is grounds for everything to go horribly wrong. And that didn't even include recalling other things.
1. Chapter 1 - Everything Is a Blur

_Warnings for eventual Decode spoilers, canon divergence post-Frontier, character death, memory loss._

* * *

Part One – Everything is a Blur

Shinomiya Rina was born on the first anniversary of Orimoto Izumi's death. By themselves, both events were perfectly harmless, if evoking different emotions. Together, maybe someone notices a pattern.

No, that's unlikely. It's much too coincidental.

Then again, the Digital World thrives on the magic of coincidence and good timing.

* * *

Shinomiya Rina loved the summer. It gave her an excuse to go to the beach and practice in her swimsuit. It gave her an excuse to fly a kite and run after school and not care what the world thinks. Not that she tended to anyway. She put her brush down and grinned at the mirror, making to leave the room as quickly as possible.

"Rina, your shirt!" V.V.'s voice shattered her excitement from the _Digimon_ app and she pouted, red eyes dancing beneath messy green locks.

"Do I gotta," she said at him in a whine, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "C'mon V.V., it's warm out, right? I can go without it!"

"You cannot!' he hollered back, making the phone shake on its charger. "You have boys looking at you in the summer, don't you dare! Your mom would kill me."

Rina huffed again, squinting at the blue and white face of the V-mon on screen. He of course, squinted right back.

These were the days that she wondered if it was worth being able to hear Digimon through the barriers of space and time. Other days she absolutely loved it.

With reluctance, she pulled on her shirt and grabbed her phone, running to leave her apartment with a cheerful yell to her mom. Something about picking up groceries or whatever, she had no idea. Oh well. What did it matter? She had battles to win, games to play!

* * *

If you asked Izumi how she would die at the age of eighteen, she would freely say: exam stress, and leave it at that.

She hadn't expected it to be via a murderer in a hooded outfit.

Then again, considering her childhood, maybe she should have. But it was too late to wonder now as the blood poured out and felt sleep pull her down.

Down, down down.

* * *

Rina had always had an aversion to alleyways.

Not that she didn't use them, but she never liked staying in them for very long. Like now, her boots were jumping from spot to spot faster than her usual pace of blindingly impossible.

All it made her think of was red-coated metal, a darker shade than her eyes. Or a chilling cold made worse by the rain. Overwhelming sensations, empty ones, it was full of those paradox elements. So she tried never to linger for too long in them as a result.

Of course, she was in such a hurry to get through this one in particular that she missed the hooded figure watching her from the other side. He licked up the last crumbs of his chocolate cake and pulled out his phone.

"Tomoki?" he chirped. "Tomoki, I found her! I know I did!"

* * *

There were things the Digital World did that no one could understand. It brought its children back to life to start anew and full of hope. It created fantastical monsters and expected peace and good to always reign. It told stories of fragile humans holding great power and reforming what might have been left broken.

Those stories tended to buzz in Shinomiya Rina's dreams.

V.V. didn't help, telling her of the old books and stories he read when he wasn't practicing for the battles or the coliseum or anything fun. Then again, she liked to read too. Some of the time.

She passed by a store window full of television screens and froze. Each screen was covered in static. For a moment or so, she could only stare at them, the sound growing louder and louder, cloaking her ears. A gentle thud of steps made her freeze, until a hand touched her shoulder. Rina jumped and spun, eyes bright with alarm. Then, after a few seconds, her shoulders slumped.

"Oh… it's just you." She relaxed fully and beamed, like she hadn't done anything weird herself. "Hey, Niko."

Niko raised one blond eyebrow. "Just me? That hurts." He placed a hand over his chest. "Feeling it right here."

This display only caused Rina to grin wider. "Aw, you know what I mean." She clapped a hand on his shoulder, causing him to grunt. "What are you doin' following me anyway?"

He flicked her nose, grinning despite himself. She tended to wrangle that out of him somehow, heaven knew how. "You check your email this morning?"

"No," she said, falling into step beside him as he started walking. "I never check it until after I get to the arcade. My phone charges in the mornings. Why look at your phone when you're movin'?"

Niko shrugged. "True, I guess." His eyes kept traveling over her, lips pursed in slight confusion. It was probably the shirt. V.V. was wrong; wearing extra layers didn't stop people from staring. Was easier to get around though. "Taiga and I got a weirdo email to our Digimon accounts last night. He said Akiho and Yuuya did too, but there wasn't a name that we knew on it."

"You didn't delete it?" She saw the arcade only a short few meters away. The others were probably there. She wished she could remember how they met, if only to be able to make up embarrassing stories. But, well, she couldn't. And wasn't that the rub? First meetings were important, something in her gut whispered that over and over. First meetings, new beginnings, they were so necessary.

She rubbed her head, staving off a potential migraine. Because those were not fun at all.

Niko seemed to notice and pulled her hood over her head to block out the sun. "Tried. It popped right back. I forwarded it to my dad. He was actually home."

Rina patted her cheeks to keep the pink off of them before looking over. "Wait, the workaholic was home? Stop the presses."

Niko gave her a weak glare. He really wasn't able to refute that, like it or not. Even though for some reason he had been home more often over the past few months he was still very busy, and well, it was hard to keep unwanted resentment from spilling out from any and all of them. "His assistants told him that if he came in today, they would lock his office." he cracked a smile at the image.

Rina only grinned wider. "Yeah, security is mean, huh?"

"They don't like being called on their days off," Niko told her in a conspiratorial whisper. Rina laughed and laughed as they entered the cool air of the arcade. He craned his neck (making Rina mentally grumble about a severe lack of height), and pointed. "There they are. Can spot pink and barely fixed bedhead a kilometer away."

Rina laughed, waving at the other three.

Then her phone started to beep, along with so many others. To be precise, every child's Digimon app began to beep. Loudly.

Rina held hers up and a strange symbol, almost like a warped star, pulsed black over red and white.

The static filled her ears again and not even Niko's voice and shaking her shoulders was enough to make it go away.

"Hello, Warrior of Wind," whispered a voice that hurt her stomach. "The third time is the charm. We need you."

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ I blame a remi for this. She's the one who gave me the earlier plot bunny and this just came first. I know she wanted me to write more Frontier, but really! This one's absurd. Hehe. Anyway. Please let me know what you think, especially as it goes on.

 **Challenges:** Ultimate Sleuth 0.6 - write about a call for help, AU Diversity Boot Camp - prompt 26: clover (reincarnation AU), Diversity Writing Challenge J5. Write a fic with exactly 15 chapters, and Prompts In Steps 5.01 - gracious.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Flurry of Fairy Wings

_Part Two – The Flurry of Fairy Wings_

The problem with dying in an accident, or a moment of chance, was that fate kept turning. Even when it needed you, it kept turning and twisting and the water rippled into a hurricane. Hurricanes she had once caused, had once created, if only to pursue victory. Or to assist in it. Now, however, now it was hers to grasp. It had to be, you understand. It was only proper.

...

Mirei sat back in the throne of Binary Castle and let out a small sigh. Within moments her skin started to crawl with discomfort. Whether it was of too many lonely nights in the woods and dilapidated shelters or just the general wrongness of her existence, she never felt comfortable in this place by herself for very long. And with her white cat currently very busy and indisposed, it was simply safer for her to remain here, like it or not. Ofanimon really needed to stop underestimating her dispassion as a lack of emotion. It tended to leave her very bored.

Well, she supposed it was a compromise. In order to prepare to go to a new world, it was best to make way to finish in a current one. Now she simply had to make it there.

"Lilithmon," she murmured. Her voice kept its unfortunate monotone (which after seeing the universe and everything it entails would cause at least a couple of side effects wouldn't it?) "Any signal from her?"

"None," supplied her former cat. "She's probably establishing communications right now." The high cheekbones on her black hearted one's face twisted with mild irritation. "You'd figure that she would remember we need this too. This is _our_ world she is playing with."

"Theirs as well," Mirei mused. Lilithmon chuckled at that. "No, it is not mine," she continued before her partner could say it, despite the throb it brought to her chest. "Not anymore."

The woman strolled away from the monitor her violet eyes had been focused on, leaning in too close to her human's face. "Don't need to be dramatic about it."

Mirei pushed her away with a simple finger to the nose. "But that's your favorite thing. Now, off. We need to get ready to bring them across again. We don't have an algorithim nor the Trailmon this go around."

The affirmative she got was almost worthy of an eyeroll. Almost.

…

Warrior was not the word that immediately worked for Shinomiya Rina. Fickle was, yeah, and perky, in more ways than one according to half the boys she kicked in the face, but warrior? No, no, that was someone else. This voice from her phone had to be mistaken.

Except she knew that it wasn't. Like she knew what V.V. was saying. Like she knew when to avoid the alleys and what the right time to aim and shoot was. Like she knew what the leaves told her during storms. This was not a mistake.

She had no clue what it actually was though, which was the problem. Rina blinked stars from her eyes to find three pairs of eyes blinking at her with concern (or something like it in Yuuya's case, someone really needed to talk to him about emotional suppression that wasn't healthy.)

"Uh..." she grunted, trying to find the actual right response here. "I'm okay?"

"Aside from your phone getting a call from no actual sender apparently so," Yuuya agreed, handing the device back to her. Rina nearly snatched it, checking V.V.'s thankfully unchanged form. He looked distinctly troubled however, and she disconnected them if only to let him figure himself out. She would ask what was wrong later. For now she just wanted to get off of the floor, which she managed after a couple of tries. Her feet felt too light and almost tripped her up twice. Finally, using Taiga's shoulder (he was closer to her height), she was able to stand up again.

She wavered for a moment but then sighed in relief. "Well! That was weird!"

Akiho, pink ponytail alight, was examining her own phone. "No kidding. They're all still working, at least, but the app going off like that normally means a grand event for all participants. I doubt that's the case today." She continued to press buttons at a pace that made Rina almost jealous. Rindou Akiho was still the best player of the _Digimon_ game, hands down, after all. Even Taiga with his really weirdly tricked out partner, couldn't do much to her nine times out of ten.

Oh well, she sucked at other games… mostly.

"So you've got nothin', huh?" Niko peered over her head, earning an elbow to the ribs. He grunted in pain and Rina couldn't control her own snort of laughter.

"Nothing from the official site at least." Akiho put her phone away. Around them, people were already starting to recover, going back to their ruined games and now slightly cold soggy pizza.

Suddenly, Rina didn't feel like playing at the arcade. "Anyone wanna bounce?"

Taiga stared at her, almost tipping his goggles beyond his nose in disbelief. "Please never say 'wanna bounce' again," he complained. "You sound like my mom."

Rina couldn't help her smug grin. "She's the one who taught me to say it!" His exasperated groans were music to her ears. She could almost forget the request.

Almost. Then their damned phones beeped again and she remembered -something- just in time for the building in front of them to explode.

…

Bare feet stamped onto the concrete, not drawing a hint of blood or a scratch off skin as they struck with enough force to crack the concrete. It was one of the benefits to being himself, one of the only benefits he could find these days.. He kept one hand inside the hoodie pocket, clutching a single, purple device tight in his left hand.

"How hard is it to find some girl in the city of Tokyo anyway?" he grumbled. "Oh yeah, really hard!" If only he had known how big Japan was at first, it would have saved him some trouble. Oh well. He kept running, pale blond hair dancing at his ears as the hood fell off. Once there would have been angel wings bursting everywhere, purple tattoos on his arms, the works.

Of course when he looked like that, he had been _evil_ , so despite the humbled look, he figured it was an improvement.

He skidded to a stoplight and pouted. The fate of the world was at stake and he had to wait for human _traffic_. It figured. He narrowed his eyes like that would help him see better, and glimpsed the blown out innards of what had once been a business. He winced. That looked nasty. There was too much noise from this area of traffic for him to be sure. There was probably screaming though. According to Takuya, people tended to scream when bad things happened. He saw the green light and dashed, leaving a crater in his wake.

At this point, Takeshi Satomi really had given up on pretending to be an ordinary boy anyway. It wasn't like anyone remembered his oh-so-ordinary name.

As he ran, he weaved past a slowly growing crowd of frozen passerby, each with their phones out and snapping photos like their lives depended on it. It took a few minutes of shoving to see just why.

There was a young woman, about everyone's age, come to think of it, spinning on her hands and kicking debris forward and back. Her green hair whipped into the air as she jumped, dodging and slipping aside the jab of a tail. His stomach roiled with delight and all he could think of was, _at last._

Rina of course, heard and saw none of this, rather focused on not dying from a random digimon appearing on Earth and attacking her. So she wasn't prepared for the very rough but reportedly very necessary blindsided tackle of a kid that looked no more than ten. She fell right on her side, shocking her friends out of their own moment of 'holy crap what is she doing' (good question, she had no clue!) and hurrying over.

"Izumi!" shrieked the boy. "You're Izumi-san, right? Finally! We've found you! We need you right now!" He shoved something purple and white into her open palm and Rina proceeded to black out. Hard.

When she opened her eyes again, there was a blonde girl standing next to her, and two floating objects only a half meter from her eyes.

"I'm on acid," she declared.

"You'll want to be when this is over." The girl said in return.

Even her hallucinations had a sass button.


	3. Chapter 3 - Hurricane Force

_Part Three – Hurricane Force_

Rina found herself standing in the eye of a hurricane. Well, not standing exactly. It was more like floating, which really wasn't much better in retrospect. And yet she wasn't afraid of falling. She knew, somehow, that she could never touch the bottom no matter what happened. She wasn't sure why that brought her some sense of comfort.

"The wind was your home, years back."

Rina turned. In retrospect, she probably ought to question this entire mess, but she couldn't. There was no real need to. Then again, that took too much brain effort. She could spend that on video games. She instead peered at the slightly shorter girl with a baffled look. Blond hair, pale skin, really pastel sort of colors?

"I knew I liked blonds, but..." She trailed off and the girl laughed.

"Well, don't worry, we're not each other's type." The girl paused. "Don't I look familiar to you?"

Rina raised an eyebrow. "No?"

The perkiness that had lifted the other's cheeks drooped. "Eh, should have seen that one coming. Reincarnation doesn't work like anime says it does. Even with the Digital World, I guess." She shook her head. "No time for that, we need to give you the cliff notes version. Keep up! See, you're the warrior of wind. I was the warrior of wind. We have inherited the spirits of one of these great warriors of the Digital World, who sacrificed themselves to seal an evil digimon away. See, the problem is that I died. I can't tell you how, but it was probably an accident. So, that's what happened with you, you see. I became you, and now people have figured that out."

Rina thought this over. That was some Tvtropes logic, wasn't it? "Well, so what?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Didn't you guys take care of the problem already?" Well then again, if they had, she wouldn't be in this situation.

The girl shook her head. "We tried. We thought we succeeded too, all things considered. However, clearly, we didn't. The Digital World is constantly repairing and improving itself, so it's only natural that the evil things do the same, right?"

Rina turned these words over and could almost see the answer, a black shadow, pain in her middle and a howling scream that was towards her but now about her.

 _Imperfect._

 _Failure._

 _Slave._

"Vitium," she thought out loud, though she's not entirely sure where that word came from, It just existed and made sense. However, it must have made enough sense for the other girl to agree.

"Yep, exactly." The girl stood back. "We didn't do anything when the Digimon appeared in front of everybody because we, being kids, thought that everyone would just forget. And now look." She spread her arms. "A world wide game, human interference- and your friends, caught in the middle. And it's not over."

She grinned at Rina. "So, what do you think we should do about it?"

Rina didn't even have to think about the answer for that.

…

Something itched beneath her. Rina groaned almost inaudibly. There was no cold wind, not heady power rush to her veins. Instead it was a headache the intensity of an ambulance siren. She groaned again, and there was a relieved chuckle. "Well, you're not dead, at least."

Rina opened her eyes and regretted it, pain slamming into her eyes. "Ow." There was a strangled laugh that was a bit like a cat when you stepped on its tail. Yuuya, she realized at the sound. She shut her eyes.

"Likely got a concussion of some sort." Yuuya's strangled voice was worried, she realized after the head pounding receded. "I'm going to have to ask you, if not make you, stay awake for the next while."

"I don't wanna go back to sleep," Rina managed after a couple of minutes, following a sharp pinch to her arm. "I had the weirdest dream, I don't need sleep."

"Was it some kid knocking you over and being attacked by Digimon?" Yuuya moved next to her with a glass of water. "Unfortunately, that did happen. Now he and Petrov are locked in an argument worthy of divorcing parents."

Rina sat up very slowly. She wasn't sure if that was what you were supposed to do if you had a concussion or not, but she didn't really care. Laying down was boring. "Well, I figured _that_ wasn't a dream," she said, though the image of Niko yelling at a small kid, though funny on some level, was really unfair. "I had an actual dream."

"It's what happens when you hit REM," Yuuya deadpanned. Rina would have hit him if he was a teensy bit closer and that didn't sound like effort at this point. Not at all.

She cracked her shoulders instead (and they were stiff as hell too, where the heck did that come from?) "I mean like, anime-style dream!" She waved her hands. "Prophetic vision, remembered stuff, you know?"

Yuuya's narrow eyes squinted almost. "You hit your head pretty hard," he said and she scoffed.

"I have a hard head!" She crossed her arms, the headache going at the feel of a nice breeze. To be honest, she didn't have much trouble believing all of this. She read enough manga and V.V. talked to her from her app… crap!

"Where's V.V?" Rina shouted so loudly it made her head twinge. "Did I drop him? Did my phone break? Did-"

"Akiho has him," Yuuya said, deflating her like an air mattress. Well, that was fine, then. "They'll probably be in here any minute since you yelled like that." Rina glared at him and he raised his hands. "Well, my ears did hurt." He leaned against the sofa, causing Rina to look around the room. Oh, figured. They were at his apartment. No wonder she felt like she had slept on something maybe comfortable. "So," he said, catching her eye again. "Dream?"

Rina let out a harrumph. She almost didn't want to tell him, the jerk, but the word stuck in her mind, clear and long and brittle.

It was mixed with a scream.

It was mixed with black smoke and a whispering voice and Taiga apparently going… somewhere, somehow. It was a story heard second hand.

It was a young woman, smiling sadly at them and their world filling with light.

"Yuuya?" she finally said. He frowned. "Have you ever heard the word 'Vitium' from your dad?"

For a moment, it looked like he was about to say no. Then a puzzled expression crossed his face. "I..." He touched his head. "Yes, I… I do believe I have heard that word. Why?"

Rina swallowed. "Then I wasn't just dreaming, I think."

…

The Trailmon slid to a halt in front of the pair. Mirei gratefully laid down on the cushioned seats as Lilithmon entered. The door slid silently closed behind her. At least _they_ got to ride the Trailmon. Lilithmon could easily carry Mirei or let her walk to the castle they were heading to in the forest, but it would be much harder for her to sleep with the constant wary avoidance of her glove. This would let her partner actually rest for a change.

"How long do we have?" Mirei asked, stretching further.

Lilithmon checked the outside. "Three days by our time," she replied, slipping her other hand beneath the seats, searching for a blanket. "Factoring in the time this one takes to rest."

"Which I _will_ take," commented the digimon around them.

Mirei smiled. "We wouldn't expect anything less."

"Good." With the soft chime of a bell, the wheels started to turn. Soon, Binary Castle began to shrink before Lilithmon's purple gaze as the sun soared higher in the sky.

She let out a soft, weary sigh. "My sister's so hopeless without me, isn't she?"

"Not that much," Mirei protested in a sleepy voice. Her computer was cradled at her chest, unwilling to depart from it even in rest. Lillithmon made a face and snatched it, replacing it with a blanket and pillow. Mirei made a noise of discontent, earning a scowl.

"No. Sleep. You promised you wouldn't."

Mirei made another sound. Lilithmon assumed she was scowling but she didn't care. Her haughty expression did not fade until soft, steady breaths became audible a short while later. Then she let her scolding turn into dread.

What could her sister possibly need from them now? From humans now? She didn't know and she knew none of them were ready to find out.

She closed her eyes herself, and tried to rest. They all would need it, but none as much as the peaceful human children.

Their free time, their vacation, was officially over.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Rainbow Collective

_revised 12-26-17_

* * *

 _Part Four – The Rainbow Collective_

"For the last time, I promise, Takuya," began one of the twins behind him. "You _sure_ that they're over there?" He fidgeted with his coat pockets. "Luce is pretty bad with directions and landmarks after all."

Takuya rolled his eyes. "I'm sure, Kouji. Jeez, it's why we got him a phone with GPS." He huffed. "It's like you think I don't think about this stuff or something. I'm not ten anymore!"

"You said it, not me," Kouji said with a quick eye roll. His brother chuckled into his own wrist. "You're at least fifteen."

"Oi." Takuya checked his phone. "Junpei coming?"

Kouichi shook his head no, short blue hair dancing over his threadbare collar. "Can't, he said his wife is in labor."

Takuya whistled in relief. "Lucky guy."

Kouji grinned. "He's a bit beside himself. That'll be you soon."

Takuya pretended to grimace, pausing to stare at the tall, gleaming building. Certainly suited a rich kid. Who else would live in a place like this? Only thing more gaudy would be a house, yikes. "I know, I know! I'm kinda excited. But…" He sobered. "That's why we need to hurry up and inform the new kids what's coming. Maybe they can head it off at the pass."

"That'd be nice," chirped one more voice. All three turned and Takuya beamed at the sight of the young man parked his bicycle.

"Tomoki!" He went over and hugged the boy before he could remember himself. "Sorry to call you out of class."

Tomoki shook his head, messy brown hair pouring over his shirt collar. "It's okay, Luce called me anyway."

"He really should have picked a less obvious name," Kouji muttered, checking his phone again.

"Well, no one will know if they've never met a Digimon before," Kouichi said, scanning the mailboxes. "Any idea which one it is?"

Tomoki snorted with laughter and the other young men all made faces of general exasperation. "You're asking way too much, Takuya-nii."

Takuya scratched his head. "Well, _yeah_ , but I Was just hoping..."

"That was your first mistake."

"Kouichi!"

As the automatic doors to the apartment slid open, they heard the sound of bare feet loudly slapping against the concrete. Tomoki groaned. "I keep telling him about the shoes..."

"Might want to knock that one off as a lost cause," Takuya said before he could stop himself, just before said little boy bolted out the door and nearly tackled poor Tomoki to the ground. "Hey, Luce, careful. He needs that head." Kouji and Kouichi laughed, Kouji stepping forward with that strained 'dear god, idiots' face he had perfected over the years. He pulled Luce off of Tomoki so the older one could stay up.

Luce barely seemed perturbed. "Sorry!"

"You didn't even mean that one," Tomoki scolded in a wheeze. Once he got air back into his lungs, he continued, "You're supposed to mean apologies, remember?

"But I was just happy to see you!" Luce's protest was met with a gentle forehead flick. He pouted. "Muh, whatever. I found her. Told you I would."

"You found who she _became_ ," Kouichi corrected as gently as he could. After all, there was no way in any circle of hell that whoever this girl was would remember being Orimoto Izumi, not be anything like her. And she shouldn't be. That was an unhealthy anime trope at best and emotionally damaging at worst. Of course he thought that while being a walking survivor of a lot of anime tropes via legendary warrior status but whatever. Semantics.

Luce seemed to agree. "Whatever!" He waved his hands. "She's up there with her friends. Awake too!"

Takuya raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me you didn't knock her out."

Luce's blue eyes widened to the size of silver dollar pancakes. "Um… I didn't knock her out?"

"Clever, this one," Kouji said as Takuya twitched again. "Come on, let's just go up and talk to them. Better than being possibly arrested for loitering."

"Or something."

"You cannot get arrested while I'm here!" Luce declared.

The four of them looked at each other and laughed. "That's not how that works, Luce."

"Well, that's how it should work."

* * *

Meanwhile, up in Yuuya's apartment, the five of them were sitting there in various stages of bafflement. Rina sat back against the back of the couch and looked them over, munching gleefully on a sandwich. For whatever reason, she was starving, and even this level of basic cooking was doing it for her right now. It was probably the mayonnaise. Either way, she was fast on her way to devouring another triangle.

"So, wait." Niko broke the silence with a look that could only be described as exasperated. " _Seriously?"_

Rina nodded, chewing. "You guys-" She paused to swallow. "You were in the Digital World before I got there, taking care of something called Vitium." Something rippled through her friends. She wasn't too good at reading expressions on people's faces but she was decent at guessing. That one looked like recognition, particularly on Taiga. "But then I was pulled in for some other reason. And we left at the same time. Only, well-"

"How did we get there?" Taiga bit his lip, gray eyes churning and accenting the frown on his face. "And… how did we come back?"

Rina wanted to ask why he was making that face. After all, her memories were limited even now. "I think," she said, furrowing her brow. "I got an email. It had a real weird question in it, and when I answered it, I must have been right because-"

"My computer started acting funny!" Taiga finished and then Rina nodded, grinning with sudden excitement. The others were nodding, one at a time, as yes, this was it, this was the answer or the start of one. Yuuya alone had a thoughtful look, but he didn't elaborate. "Okay so that brought us there, but how did we-

"Rina."

Taiga, Akiho, and Rina all jumped, leaving Yuuya and Niko both raising an eyebrow. Rina pointed at her phone, where the V-Pet icon was blinking. Niko relaxed, but Yuuya shook his head in annoyance. She couldn't blame him. The Digimon had to not interrupt quite like that.

"Yeah, V.V.?" she said after calming her too-fast heart.

"I-" He stopped for a moment like he could hear someone else. Then he continued. "We know who brought you guys to the Digital World."

"You do?" Akiho shifted in her chair, reaching for the nearest pillow. She got Yuuya's hand instead. Neither seemed to mind. "How?" Taiga looked at Niko and translated before the boy could look disgruntled and more out of the loop than he already was.

"Well," V.V. began, pausing again. "She didn't wipe our memories like she did yours. We live in the Digital World, so it would be too much work. Also because she knew we wouldn't tell you. It would mess with you guys too much. Unfortunately, things have started to get out of hand again and because of that, we needed to contact you. Cause this time, something's happening on your end, like Vitium was, and we can't reach it."

They all looked at Yuuya, who out of all of them had the best memory. Yuuya gave them all a look of exasperated irritation and rubbed his temples with one hand. "Father had a project named after that in the science division," he finally said. "All I know is that it went down in failure, as in, someone was harmed failure. Therefore it had to be shut down."

"I think dad was working on something like that," Niko muttered. "He was always gone a few years back. Never figured out why he got free time all of a sudden, though I guess if we took care of Vitium, that'd be why."

"Still kinda wanna know who 'she' is," Taiga mumbled, putting a hand on his head.

"You'll see her again soon," Digimaru said brightly, completely oblivious to the wistful way Taiga's voice had turned. Yuuya had to contain a snort. He actually sounded smitten. "She's going to need all of your help, and more!"

The sheer excitement made Niko want to down a spicy pepper.

Someone knocked at the door. Niko stood up, fire prepared to leap out of his eyes and to demand to tell whoever was outside to stay out and they could bother _the precious heir of GIGO_ on someone else's time. Of course, before he could, the lights went out. All but the giant flat screen that Yuuya loathed having, because a strange cross covered the screen instead.

"It has been a long time, everyone."


	5. Chapter 5 - The Glue

_Part Five – The Glue_

The voice didn't click, of course. Not in the way that everything assumed it would, not the way the shows said it _should._ But what did the shows know?

And yet. And yet.

Something in Rina's mind said, oh, hello. Like it's been a while and they've met again. Like the answers to some old questions can finally be answered. For the moment.

There was a giggle from a short distance away, or that was what it seemed like from behind the table. "Ofanimon, they won't recognize you, you know that, don't you?" The first voice muttered something no one could make out, but it was followed by laughter. "Here, let's just not hide ourselves, shall we?" The image flickered and phased out, leaving a black screen in its wake. The darkened room was dead silent for three seconds. Then, what appeared to be a throne room formed into view and there are three women there. Well, one women and two distinctly non-human creatures that kind of look like women.

All Niko could think of as he looked on was of 'the angel and devil on the shoulders' that was so popular in the west.

An angel decked in strange teal armor floated on the right side of the screen and on the left a teenage girl sat in the lap of a kimono wearing demon with… well. Seriously that was compensating for something, wasn't it? You didn't need a chest like that to be attractive. _Digimon… Ofanimon and… Lilithmon?_ He'd never actually seen them in the game. Most high-rankers had tanks or something similar.

He turned to look at the others, only to find Taiga's eyes rapt on the screen, mouth a bit slack. Niko looked back at the screen, following Taiga's gaze as best as he could. He caught sight of the young woman sitting in Lilithmon's lap, her laptop in hand. She looked up at them and a slow smile spread across her lips, framed by short lilac hair.

The words fell into his head like a heavy boulder.

" _I am afraid I cannot go back with you."_

"Hello, everyone." She closed her device and set it up on a table. "I would like to say 'it's been a while', but you don't remember me as clearly as I do for you. My name is Mirei. It's a pleasure, once again, though I do wish it could be under better circumstances."

No one spoke. No one really seemed to be breathing. As if on command, memories were slamming into each person's mind one after the other in a steady hailstorm. The other person sat in that same silence, hands folding over each other.

Then Taiga crawled over, only not vaulting over the small table because there wasn't enough room. "...Mirei?" His voice was cracking and hoarse and he was withing seconds of ramming his hand into the screen like it could suck him in.

She dipped her head. "Hello, Taiga. I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"Damn right." Niko said as he moved to pull Taiga away from doing something stupid. Just because Yuuya could afford to replace the giant television did not mean he should have to. "What is going on? Why did we forget?"

The door creaked open and the five occupants of the room jumped.

"You said you locked it." Akiho rose to her feet, shoulders tense and fists raised.

Yuuya scowled, following after her. "I did." For whatever reason, his V-Pet was clenched tight in one hand. After a second, Rina realized they were all in a similar position.

"Not well!" The boy from before chirped a little too loud as he bounded into the room. Rina winced at the pain in her head. "I can easily break it."

"Luce, you're not supposed to break locks." A college student led three other men into the room, murmuring apologies and removing his shoes. "Sorry about him," he said with a small sigh. "I'm kinda starting to realize how bad I was to my brother." At everyone's baffled stares, even Taiga's, he grinned a bit. "My name's Himi Tomoki. We're here to hopefully explain everything to you, especially you." He gestured to Rina, who pinched the bridge of her nose.

Then she waved. "Hi, I guess."

Tomoki smiled a bit, then turned. "Takuya-san, what are you _doing_?"

"I've bee asking that since the day we met," one of the others muttered. The second male, who was apparently struggling with his boot, gave him a rough shove with an arm, nearly toppling over in the process. The blond boy giggled.

Tomoki gave him a tug on the ear. "No."

'Takuya' let out a snort as the boy whined. "You're working so hard, Tomoki."

"Someone has to."

Rina snickered with laughter. "Nice one."

Tomoki grinned then turned to the television screen. "Hello, Ophanimon! It's been a while! You've made friends, huh?"

Ofanimon smiled and the expression almost literally lit up the room. "You could say that."

"I raised her back to her current state," Mirei said quietly. "In return for her assistance."

"It's hardly assistance the way you're putting it." Ofanimon waved her lance in a decidedly lazy sort of gesture.

"My sister is complaining," mused the Lilithmon.

"That's nothing new."

Takuya finally came over, leaning on Tomoki and grinning at the teenagers. Even Niko was looking up at him a little in terms of height. He really didn't like that. "So, lemme introduce us real quick!" Which he did, barely fast enough for any of them to catch names. "And we're what you could call your seniors, I guess. We fought in the Digital World a good few years back to defeat-" He gave a dramatic fourish of his hand towards Luce, who bounced at being noticed. "This kid."

Yuuya raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms as he sat back down. " _Really."_

Luce glared at him, hilariously shorter than him even while Yuuya was sitting down. "Yes, really! I'm a Lucemon. I was very tough back in my day, you!"

"So was the Lucemon Taiga and Rina felled," Yuuya replied coolly. "Your point?"

Rina and Taiga choked, Taiga's cheeks flushing red almost as dark as Luce was growing. "Why you-"

"Okay, stop." Mirei's voice filtered through the speakers. They turned to see her moving over to the screen, leaning to sit in Ofanimon's lap. "Fun as this may be, there is something you have to do. "

"Does it have to do with Vitium?" Yuuya's mockery had sobered into a grating chill, and his fingers curled into the upper part of his shirt. Akiho made a face, but squeezed his shoulder.

Mirei nodded, then seeing the baffled looks on the adult's faces, elaborated. "The Vitium is -was- a creature created by the GIGO company to take data and go between worlds. At the end, Taiga managed to convince it to stop its rebellion, however..."

Taiga jolted, feeling way too many eyes on him at the same time. He could kind of remember its voice, sad, alone. And also… also very-

He shook his head. "Yeah when I defeated them, they just said they were going to disappear into the sea." Taiga turned his head back to Mirei, ignoring the uncomfortable throb in his chest. "Then we fought a Lucemon… Are you saying that Vitium didn't end up there?"

Mirei sighed softly. "No, if that was the issue, this would be simple to resolve. Only, the Vitium's data was originally _from_ the Digital Sea. Therefore, even if it went there-"

"It'd be easy to bring back again," Akiho finished, her pink eyes narrowing. "So how do _they_ come in?" She gestured to Takuya at the others.

Takuya raised an eyebrow. "I'll have you know that we're more than just a 'them'."

Mirei chuckled a bit. "We need their power, as former Legendary Warriors. They gave many of the Ancient Spirits new life. We need them to finish the job and seal away the last of Vitium's data. Because they don't only have that, but I have a suspicion..." She trailed off and smiled again. "Well, it's just a theory for now. What do you think? Does it interest you enough?"

No sooner had she finished that sentence that Niko went bolting right out the door, barely remembering his shoes, swearing loudly and colorfully in Russian.

"Oh dear," she murmured. It seemed she had forgotten one important fact, in her rush for them to understand.

Yakov Petrov was still a GIGO employee and had once been under Vitium's thrall. This was going to be complicated.


	6. Chapter 6 - The World Has Mysteries

_Part Six – The World Weaves Mysteries_

The soles of his shoes might break by the end of his run but Niko didn't care in the slightest. Every little thought in his mind had narrowed down to memories.

 _Purple-black shadows, crimson portals, cackling, screaming -_

 _Blue in the darkness of the forest, blue in the darkness, blue and grey and black and sudden orange and his father's blank gray eyes, his father being cut down-_

Niko heard these thoughts as quickly as they appeared, didn't acknowledge them, probably wouldn't even be something he remembered in a minute. He could feel his eyes watering and he rubbed to correct it. The anger swelled and deflated, helpless in its place in his chest. All he could think of was the heavy wood blocking him from his father's study, the endless litany of the door locking from at least one place in the house every day.

Remembering the silence made him stop to breathe and he hated it. He didn't want to remember this, but he could remember it. He could.

With his brain catching up with the rest of him, Niko swallowed air, coughing at the raspiness in his now scalding throat. He sniffled for a moment. Niko couldn't exactly place why he was having this undeniable urge to cry, aside from that _his dad had done something wrong._ But he couldn't remember what it was, and he couldn't remember why it pissed him off so much to think of it. He thought of that purple hair and something in him wants to kick a hole in the nearest wall- but he didn't, he wasn't an idiot, just desperate, just angry, just-

A kid.

" _You're a child, Niko. You don't have to understand."_

He stopped and this time, beat his hand against something, a lamp post. He didn't recognize it at first, but he was still careful. He stopped as the pain actually grew into a multitude of pricks and blood, breathed heavy.

Niko looked down the bicycle path and let out a soft, heavy noise. He looked behind him to find Rina, of course, running after him, hiding her worry behind that jaw creaking smile she loved so much.

 _I can't beat her, and she's always trailing after me._

And now she was supposedly some warrior or something (He couldn't be too surprised about that, she was the kind of person who could kick people across a room with a single running jump and laugh!) or the reincarnation of one, so she had some grandiose destiny that he avoided. He stopped, resisting that urge to keep going, to keep running all the way to his house and to bury himself under the covers until the world stopped turning for just a while. But he didn't. She wouldn't let him, as far as she was concerned, that was a waste of time. There were so many other things to stay in bed for.

Niko laughed before he could stop himself, causing her to reach him with a puzzled frown.

"What's so funny?" She poked him in the chest as hard as she could and he winced in actual pain.

"You're funny," he said with a wry grin. "You come after me when I'm clearly pissed off and you _grin._ Are you telling me that you can't find that weird _at all?_ "

She crossed her arms and huffed at him, making him look down right to her chest. She did that on purpose, she had to be doing it on purpose, the… whatever she is. "Why's it wrong to go after someone when they're upset?!"

Niko huffed, trying to be annoyed, trying to be exasperated, and failing from the pout on her face. "No it's not that, it's-" He looked for words to explain away the absurdity and settled for mussing her hair with her hood and one hand. "Forget it."

She licked his hand and he glared at her. "Don't."

"I could make a comment here."

" _Really don't."_

She laughed at him. Then Rina took his injured hand by the wrist and he winced. "All right, let's go get that looked at. C'mon."

Niko almost pulled away but his hand hurt a bit too much for him to try. "I need to talk to my old man."

"We'll call him after you get that bandaged up!"

She made it sound easy. "I, dad's not an easy conversationalist." Never mind that he might have lied about a lot of things, never mind that he had been keeping this a secret and not dragged GIGO through the mud or at least its funders who had let-

" _There was an accident. I lost my body."_

someone die and just went on working, went on going. Like it hadn't happened at all. Except maybe he hadn't, maybe he had started working harder, maybe that was where all the disappearing had ended up, towards that world, towards that creation, out of something, but-

That but lingered in his head until Rina bumped it out with her head against his chin. He blushed right up to his ears.

" _Rina!"_ He scrambled back and only didn't fall because of Rina's steel grip on his arm. "Don't do that!"

She scowled at him, red eyes narrowed into slits. "Then don't zone out!"

"Oh, so I'm not allowed to think?" He stuck out his tongue at her.

Rina pouted at him one more time as she turned around. " _Well,_ it's clearly not doing you any good. You're lik-" She stopped for a moment, covering her mouth.

"Rina?" He stepped closer. She stared at him for a moment.

Then she giggled. It sounded a bit wet. "I was just gonna say, 'You're like Junpei, so it's just you using your brain too much.'" She looked at him with earnest puzzlement. "Any idea who that is?"

Niko put his arm over her should and she shook her head again. "I just… I dunno who that is. I don't like it."

"Me either." He didn't like any of this, not one bit.

…

For a few minutes, the group stared in the direction that the two of them had departed from.

"Uh." Takuya broke the silence despite his clear desire to not really do that. "Should we go after them?"

"Not at all." Mirei's cool, even voice was full of amusement. "They'll find their way."

Taiga twitched in his seat. He wanted to speak, to demand something, like answers probably. Like 'why did we forget you' or, why are you here now', or 'how are you?, are you eating, are you still lonely' but none of them were willing to burst out of his throat fast enough. It all throbbed in his chest instead, that white-hot desperation that should have dulled in time somehow even stronger.

Time apparently did not heal all wounds.

Takuya nodded slowly and Tomoki grabbed Luce's tiny ankle, causing him to topple over. "All righty then, so… what are we supposed to be doing?"

Mirei glanced back and Ofanimon nodded. She was wearing one of those private smiles Taiga recognized from his own mother (it had to be a woman thing and it made him rather sick to think about that it kept working.). Seeing approval, the woman turned back to them, smiling grimly.

"The creature made from Vitium's remains is currently very small and hopefully quite harmless," she said, looking at her own computer as she spoke. "But so long as it is under GIGO reign, it will continue to grow, to advance, and cause more suffering. More," She swallowed, tasting the end of hr sentence. "More loss, of a kind. We need you to find what's controlling the poor creature, and destroy that, as well as any attempts to reconnect that they have."

"There's security," Yuuya interjected. "Even I can't simply walk in with a party at my back."

"I work there," Kouichi offered from his seat. "I would know. There must be something else."

Mirei nodded. "I believe I can get you in through the digital world." Lilithmon let out a hiss that made everyone else jump but Mirei ignored. "It will take some work, but I'll be able to transfer you in and out without harm to your bodies. Then you will have to do some hacking but if I can get you in, I'm relatively certain I can keep you in."

Yuuya bit his lip and then smiled, the red on his mouth giving an unhealthy power to his pale face. "Father won't take it lying down."

Mirei returned the expression. "That will be your task to deal with."


	7. Chapter 7 - Boundaries Blur

_Part Seven – Boundaries Blur_

"She makes it sound easy doesn't she?"

For a moment, Kouji and Yuuya sounded so similar the room had to stare at them both as they spoke. They only looked amused. _Twits_ , Takuya thought with a fond little smile.

"Well, she hacked your apartment, dragged us all into the Digital World, and spat us back here without us remembering anything, Yuuya, so for her it might just _be_ easy."

Akiho said all of this in one breath and therefore took a few seconds to get air back. Yuuya patted her back, but looked at the silent Taiga. He was still staring at the television screen, too much longing on his face. If he stared long enough, he'd get her face back. That was probably what he was thinking right now.

Kouji cleared his throat and only then, with utter reluctance, did Taiga turn away to look at them. He earned only a small frown in response. Takuya barely contained his snort. Kouji really wasn't good with teenagers. It was the only time he had ever seen him fight with Tomoki, ever, well, since Monzaemon anyway.

Takuya decided to do the diplomatic thing and get involved. "Hey, Luce, can you check on the lovebirds who ran off?"

The little boy saluted. "You betcha!" He left with astonishing speed, well, barring the fact that he clearly wasn't human anyway.

This did get a laugh out of the kid though. Taiga wiped his eyes with his thumb and muttered 'lovebirds' to the point that it came out dangerously close to a wheeze. "Niko can't ever hear you say that."

The other two were grinning. "We should tell him," Akiho declared.

Tomoki made a tittering sound, watching the door. His henning senses were probably on high alert to go running after the little kid, but he didn't. Good. Had to let him grow up eventually… though with Luce it sure felt like it took a lot longer than it did them.

"All right." Takuya pushed himself to his feet. "What do you say we fill each other in on the way? We're gonna get to the Digital World, theoretically."

Taiga was immediately focused on him like a cat to the dot of a laser pointer. "You… you know a way in?"

Takuya grinned with pride, wishing now that Shinya did not have his goggles. "Course! We're not your seniors for nothing!"

…

"Ah, I see, so you remember now."

The more time passed, the more Niko could appreciate how old his father was. He had been through close to hell. He was alive during the Soviet Union for goodness' sake and lived. He had a lot of good reasons to be rather intimidated by his old man. Still. He had kept a pretty big secret. That wasn't okay.

Rina sat next to him, staring at his dad with that unblinking look she got sometimes, when she was thinking pretty hard. She nodded along to their conversation but she probably wasn't paying attention at all. He would let it go for now. She was apparently the reincarnation of some girl and was remembering things that had nothing to do with her. It would matter later.

Yakov sat back in his desk chair. Niko was surprised his dad had let them into his office. He must have sounded serious enough. Good, he guessed.

Feeling two pairs of eyes on him, Nikolai cleared his throat. "Yeah, so I remember and… did you ever forget or something?"

His face fell and he shook his head no, the tips of his mustache and beard shaking ever so slightly. "No, I did not. For whatever reason, her effect on my memories was not as powerful as yours and as soon as I returned to work, I recalled the events almost immediately." He shook his head. "Or perhaps I was just in the right place at the right time. I couldn't tell you. However, you had no recollection, so I wasn't keen on reminding you. It was a hard fought battle, and even if it had not been, you had no real after effects because of it. I assumed it was my burden to bear."

Niko opened his mouth to counter that but Rina spoke first. "Well, it wouldn't have mattered. No one would have believed us."

"No," Yakov admitted, looking at his too-small computer screen. "Kuga-kun certainly did not. Then again, he was personally uncomfortable with the idea of Vitium being sentient. The artificial intelligence should not have been that advanced." He turned his screen to show them. "I'm of the opinion that this may have been caused by a mutation of some kind, either before or after the scientist was sucked into the portal. It wasn't an entirely stable program prior to that absorption but it must have gained sentience afterwards if that was the case."

"Wait..." Niko had to raise his other hand, his left pressed to his head in an attempt to focus. "Hold on dad." For a moment, the memories slid about, rocking in his head like a lost raft. "You said that program _absorbed someone?_ "

His father nodded slowly. "Yes. Mirei-kun, or who she once was, at any rate. Which is classified information, so do not ask." His lips twitched at the corners and Niko scowled.

"Fine." He really wasn't sure he wanted to know though. That person was dead, just like- He shook that thought out of his mind. "But still, yeah. No one really would have believed us, huh?"

"Not without physical proof, mo. And the Digital World doesn't count." Yakov rested his fingers on the keys once more. "That would ask more from the ones who live there than they likely can provide. That we use their land for games is enough is it not?"

Niko agreed, giving Rina a glance. She grinned at him in reply, but as he watched her hand, he saw something flicker at her wrist, gentle pink and purple. Before he could comment however, there was a very loud boom that shook the walls, sloshing the fish in their tank.

All three of them looked at each other as the alarm sounded overhead. Niko watched his father nearly leap over his desk and out the door.

He turned to Rina. "Taiga?"

She was grinning a mile wide. "I bet! C'mon, let's help!"

Unfortunately, it wasn't Taiga. It was a great big blue light in the middle of a nearly empty room and with little Luce standing in front of it.

"Knew that'd get your attention," he chirped as they arrived. "Look what I found guys!"

Niko took a moment to find words. "You don't think much, do you?" he finally managed to say.

Luce shrugged. "No, not really."

Rina yanked on Niko's arm right as the security guards came in, hiding them from view. Under the shadow of an alcove. She hoped wherever their friends were, they actually did something in the next few minutes so they all weren't caught with guards carrying what looked like laser beams.

" _I think you and me should be able to do something about that actually."_

Rina twitched. She _really_ didn't like hearing voices in her head. It was weird enough hearing V.V.'s in her ears all the time. At least this one seemed like it was helpful, so…

" _Hey, you had to get your kicks from someone, right? Now, use the wall, get some leverage for one of your feet."_

She placed her hand on the wall. It was smooth, not a single groove she could even slide her nails into. Still, she rested one foot there bending her knees. From there, the idea slid from words to movement and she pushed. For a moment, it felt like she had wings and they pushed her onward, right into the armored jaw of a security guard.

" _Not bad. At least it wasn't your butt."_

She really did not want to know.

" _Don't think about it. The Digital World is weird. By the way, up!"_

She kicked up and then to the side. If she looked to her left, she saw Niko trying to get a baton out of someone's hand. He just had to try to keep up with her didn't he? Idiot.

Rina knew they got along for a reason. The voice in her head giggled.

Those thoughts too were blown all too gleefully out of the water by that little light (which Luce had gotten even closer to in the few moments that everything had gone to hell, proceeded to explode in a violent surge of electricity, silencing the mechanical hum of the room and most of the moving people.

Niko groaned. "I think I have a concussion… Rina?"

Rina grunted, trying to kick off someone's body. "I'm okay!"

Luce was staring in fascination at the big light. "Everyone's headed this way!"

Rina groaned and slumped back. _"Warning_ woulda been nice. Just a bit of one."

"Here's a warning," the little boy said. "Move before you get hit by a train!"

It was a testament to how weird today was that Rina managed to pull herself up and then Niko, then pull them back to the other end of the room as quickly as she could and believe that whole thing from the get go. This was such a weird, weird day. And it was only getting started, wasn't it?


	8. Chapter 8 - A Train Ride to Somewhere

_Part Eight – A Train Ride to Somewhere_

Touching down on the ground made Taiga recall everything he ever needed and did not want to know about the Digital World in approximately five-point-two seconds. So that naturally made him dizzy which made him want to throw up over the pixelated grass.

He only managed to do that for about half a minute before everyone crashed down on him at the same time. Well, nearly, somehow Yuuya had managed to avoid it. He was starting to assume it was by the grace of god because how else did you end up standing and avoiding Akiho crashlanded on your backside. She didn't seem too bothered though. Taiga wasn't sure he'd be able to move for the next three hundred years for various reasons, some hormone related. Then he was capable of breathing again and the memories began slotting back into their proper places. It was almost like they had fixed the bookshelves trapped empty and gathering dust in his head. Or something.

Then, as if to add the bookends, there was Mirei herself, settled in the arms of a Lilithmon like she was incapable of walking on her own. The young woman hopped down, proving how untrue it was. And also proved Lilithmon could hen, the woman looked like she thought Mirei would topple over and-she wouldn't, would she? That would be awkward, they had just met again and she looked pleased, as pleased as she ever-

Oh dear god nothing had changed he really still liked looking at her.

Yuuya's bony elbow to the ribs thankfully snapped him out of that state of shock and near drooling, but it also made his 'hi' come out sounding like he had strep throat.

Mirei smiled a bit more and that should not feel as good as it did to look at holy moly. "Welcome back, even if temporarily."

Taiga coughed, looking for coherency. Thankfully Tomoki had that one covered in spades. "Thanks so much. It's good to be back." Takuya, for whatever reason, looked smug, especially as Tomoki continued, all confidence and adulthood. "Which direction?"

Mirei pointed to the tracks on the ground. "Towards the most solid train car. We'll get to the station from there."

Whatever the heck that meant.

The older men looked at each other and then nodded. Made sense to them. Taiga looked at Akiho and Yuuya, who only shrugged helplessly at him in reply. He just gave up and followed them after her, hoping and praying something would come out of it that wasn't them being separated again. Still no sign of Rina and Niko though. Or that kid Luce. He hoped they were okay, and that they could get here and they could bring this whole Vitium and Digital World issue to an end, a happier end.

He had so many questions about that, for the record. But he couldn't ask them now. It was just too embarrassing.

So they walked. Even Mirei walked despite the way Lilithmon hovered about her, wings barely flapping. Was she really that fragile? Or was it just a closely formed habit of looking after such a tired looking person? He wouldn't be able to tell, to be honest. It had been so long and they'd never been close, even with that one time there had been something, like an admission.

Taiga shook his head. That wasn't important now, they had a job to do, a mission to complete. He glanced around Railroad Plains instead.

Beside them, Tomoki let out a whistle of admiration. "This looks nothing like when we were last here. So this is what the reformatted world looks like."

"When the data was recollected, it had to distribute differently to confuse the programming," Mirei explained, walking with her laptop in one hand. How she didn't trip, Taiga had no idea. He was watching her be as sure-footed as ever. "Lucemon's destruction was the equivalent of deleting multiple files without the recovery partition in the right place or a strong enough recycle bin."

Takuya made a face. "So… our Digivices weren't a good data storage area?" Kouji was grimacing much more heavily.

"With the Spirits in them, there's simply not enough room. Not enough to remember every single person's identity. Furthermore, Lucemon's vices were purified as well. They did not simply cease to exist." Mirei stopped along a line of track and her computer vanished to who knew where. "So the reformatted data was a necessity."

Taiga shivered. She sounded so _final_ about it. All those reborn monsters who had no idea what was happening to them… how terrible.

At least he thought it was terrible, but he was a bleeding heart that way, to be fair. She glanced at him and then away as if reading his mind.

Takuya nodded along. "That's… kinda sad to be honest."

No one disagreed, not even Yuuya who looked slightly discomfited with the idea. They stood there and waited, watching the track shimmer and tremble with soft, blue light. Slowly, a black train rumbled into view, red and black circles glowing on and off in turn, mimicking eyes. They didn't move but as it lurched to a stop Takuya flinched back a little.

"You're… that Trailmon." The way his face contorted gave a terrible sort of emphasis. His friends all looked at him, concern etched into their frowns. Tomoki moved over and leaned companionably against Takuya's arm. "It's a long story," he said in lieu of actually explaining "But he helped me out when I needed it, so I'll take that as enough."

"As you should," it droned, clearly unconcerned by his clear discomfort with the idea, nor interested in the way the other adults looked at him with obvious worry. "Now, we must be going. Vitium is only patient some times of the day."

"No fooling," Yuuya muttered under his breath. Then he looked over at Mirei. "The human world?"

"Only briefly," she replied. "You won't even have to disembark." She entered the train car without a backward glance, followed by her partner. "Just picking up our wayward strays, that's all."

The Legendary Warriors hurried inside, Takuya looking between the front car and the door like they would swallow him whole as he did. Yuuya and Taiga shared a look with Akiho, who eventually shrugged. She did not take the first step into the train car, however.

"Where's Digitorin?" she asked.

Yuuya let out a curse word in the smoothest English Taiga had heard in his life. Taiga only flushed with embarrassment. "Oops."

They had forgotten their partners. That was embarrassing.

Mirei tried not to chuckle. "Don't worry, they'll be at the castle. I sent them on their way after I messaged you."

Tomoki tilted his head in interest. "You don't evolve yourselves?"

"That's safer," Kouji muttered under his breath.

"Barely," Taiga agreed. "We don't exactly get to stay out of the way." From there, the two groups swapped stories, Mirei's eyes flicking back and forth with mild interest, listening with the faintest of smiles. Taiga had to make himself look away to continue being able to form words properly.

A deep sense of shame filled his gut. He had promised to himself to make her smile more, so much brighter. He had promised that to him she would feel safe and welcome and all sorts of things. She would be able to come to earth (back to earth, he remembered, she was from earth and she died because of GIGO screw capitalism.) and they could hang out and have fun and she had known it couldn't happen and yet hadn't been able to tell him and he'd broken his promise like a fool who didn't listen to his dad.

But maybe, this time, he could keep his internal promise some other way. It was really only to make himself feel better.

But first, they had to figure out Rina and help Vitium or whatever it was now. And maybe, just maybe, they could resolve everything that way and then everything would be all right.

"We're now approaching the real world," droned the Trailmon. "Please hold on, we are now creating tracks."

" _Creating_ tracks?" Kouichi echoed.

"Sounds as bad as tracks that already exist," Takuya thought out loud.

The adults looked at each other and clung to their seats for dear life. Taiga, a minute later, wished that he had.

* * *

The train thankfully didn't slam into the opposite wall of the computers, though it did blow a few servers over. Eh, they didn't need those anyway. All Rina could see them being used for was more destruction and suffering on a sentient being. Man, those were words she had never thought she would be using.

Her head continued to ring like a bell.

 _Hold still,_ a voice, the voice she was still getting used to recognizing as her own, said simply. _The Spirits are pretty good at this healing stuff. At least she will be once we get on the train._

Rina had the feeling she should not even attempt to question any of that. Her head was ringing too much. She had to focus on staying conscious.

"Niko," she croaked. "Keep me conscious."

At least she had _thought_ she had said that but he had kissed her instead, which really did not help her oxygen level thanks.

When he pulled away, he grinned at her. "Did that help?"

She barely managed to blink. "You're gonna pay for that when my eyes aren't crossing," she declared. By repeating that! And with better technique.

He smirked that jerk. Even she could tell that.

The train pulled to a stop, dark and groaning. Taiga leaned out of one of the carriages. "Come on you two! We've gotta get out of here!"

"Didn' want to be here in the first place," she thought she heard Niko say through the bells. Then she was shuffled onto the train. With an unpleasant little lurch, they were gone.

The wind blew over her as they rolled furiously backward and Rina managed a weak smile. "Thanks."

Then, she passed out, which was really bad in the grand scheme of things.


End file.
